Asian & Middle Eastern Monarchs & Strongmen Codexery

Hamid Karzai

First president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, 2004–2014.

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Hamid Karzai

via Wikipedia: Hamid Karzai · see source

He became leader of Afghanistan in 2001 and served as president until 2014.[1] On 24 December 1957, in the Karz area of Kandahar City, Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai was born.[2]

Life and work

He worked as a fundraiser for anti-communist Afghan rebels during the 1980s.[3] He initially supported the Taliban in the mid-1990s, thinking they would stop violence and corruption.[4] Karzai's father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was assassinated in Quetta in July 1999, reportedly by the Taliban.[5] He was elected president in 2004 with 55.4% of the vote.[6]

In 1992, after President Najibullah stepped down, Karzai entered Kabul with mujahideen leaders and took the position of Deputy Foreign Minister under Burhanuddin Rabbani.[7] Karzai worked to improve ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan during his presidency.[8] Over time, Karzai's ties with NATO and the United States grew more tense.[8][1]

What the cited sources add

A 2014 BBC profile noted that Karzai was initially feted by foreign governments but later criticized for failing to prevent corruption.[1] The same source stated that Karzai survived numerous assassination attempts in 2002, 2004, 2007, and 2008.[1] A 2014 Guardian article described Karzai as well-read, funny, and able to talk about 19th-century politics and poetry.[9] The Guardian also reported that Karzai's relationship with US policymakers ended in "definitive, and acrimonious, divorce"[9]

A 2021 France 24 article reported that after the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Karzai sat down with a Taliban delegation including Anas Haqqani.[10] The same article reported that Karzai referred to the Taliban as "brothers" and cautioned that aggressive counterinsurgency tactics were reinvigorating the movement.[10]

References

  1. "Profile: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai", BBC News, 10 July 2014. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  2. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burke, "Hard man in a hard country", The Guardian, 7 March 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Office of the President", Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; "Biography – Office of the President", President.gov.af; Stockman, "Afghan president's brother looks back", The Boston Globe, 22 May 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Marlowe, "Two Myths About Afghanistan", The Washington Post, 11 February 2008, p. A13; "Profile:Hamid Karzai", Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), December 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Profile:Hamid Karzai", Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), December 2001; "Book Excerpt: Scenes of Afghan History – Hamed Karzai before 2001", Afghanistan Analysts Network - English, 1 September 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Matthew J. Morgan, "A Democracy Is Born: An Insider's Account of the Battle Against Terrorism in Afghanistan", Greenwood Publishing Group, September 2010 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burke, "Hard man in a hard country", The Observer, 20 July 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Hamid Karzai" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Afghanistan election: profile of Afghan President Hamid Karzai", The Telegraph, 20 August 2009; "Profile: Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai", BBC News, 10 July 2014; "Hamid Karzai's tangled legacy: inept failure or anti-Taliban hero?", The Guardian, 30 March 2014; "With Taliban talks, former Afghan leader Karzai makes a comeback", France 24, 20 August 2021 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Hamid Karzai's tangled legacy: inept failure or anti-Taliban hero?", The Guardian, 30 March 2014. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  10. "With Taliban talks, former Afghan leader Karzai makes a comeback", France 24, 20 August 2021. facts only, no text reused. france24.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Hamid Karzai (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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